Contents
Abstract
The report uses a top-down valuation process to examine the Australian economy, the metal and mining and consumer industries and analyses BHP Billiton Limited and Woolworths Limited. Variables affecting the Australian economy are inflation and interest rates; the gross domestic product; the exchange rate; and economic risks. The metal and mining industry is the largest sector in Australia and the consumer industry is the third largest sector. The present value of the dividend model and the present value of the operating free cash flow were used to evaluate BHP Billiton Limited and Woolworths Limited. Based on the dividend model and the present value of the operating free cash
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and Japan and expected their economic growth to increase in 2014 (Schwarten, 2013).
2.5 Australian Economy Summary
In summary, Australia currently has a stable economy with an increasing GDP, low inflation rate and interest rate which are the advantages for the share price. However, the high exchange rate and economic risks could negatively influence the share market.
3.0 Industry Analysis
3.1 Metal and Mining Industry
One of the largest sectors in Australia, the metal and mining industry, includes over 760 companies comprising some of the world's largest resource companies such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto; and considered to be highly competitive (ASX, 2013a). According to Porter (cited in Reilly & Brown, 2009), the intensity of competition within an industry is a significant element influencing the earnings forecast of that industry. Consequently, the firm may demand cost cutting in order to create greater competition and market share which may then have an impact on the rate of return.
According to S&P/ASX 300 Metals & Mining (Appendix 1), the total return of negative 17.39% and price return of negative 19.54% indicate a poor performance due to the high cost of the Australian economy. Daley and Kehoe (2012) state more than half of Australian mines have costs above the international average which causes the industry to lose its competitive edge and thus exports will decrease. Additionally, uncertainty of demand and price partially
This report will show an overview of the current state of the Australian economy and its management by the Federal government through examining economic indicators such as economic growth (GDP), unemployment, inflation and trade.
The figure obviously had not return to pre-crisis level. Moreover, recent commodity prices had fallen significantly which will affect Australia’s short and long term economy.
Achieving external stability is an important objective of economic policy, achieving this stability ensures that imbalances in Australia’s economic relationships with other economies do not hinder achieving domestic economic policy goals such as lower rate of unemployment, higher rate of growth and lower inflation. There are three main factors that effect external stability the deficit on the current account (CAD), net foreign liabilities and the Australian dollar. Australia’s experienced times when overseas investors decided that the economy’s external position was unstable, and when investors like such decide to withdraw their
The world price of Australia’s mining exports has more than tripled over the past decade, while investment spending by the mining sector increased from 2 per cent of GDP to 8 per cent. This ‘mining boom’ represents one of the largest shocks to hit the Australian economy in generations. This paper attempts to quantify some of its effects, using top-down analysis of the Australian economy. It will show the mining boom has substantially increased Australian living standards. By 2016, we estimate that it had raised real per capita household disposable income by 13 per cent, raised real wages by 6 per cent and lowered the unemployment rate by about 1¼ percentage points. There have also been costs. The boom has led to a large appreciation of the Australian dollar that has weighed on other industries exposed to trade, such as manufacturing and agriculture.
The competition of mining industry is medium to high. One major competition for mining industry is the competition for resources and mines, which is different from other industries. Since the resources are limited and unrenewable, together with the continues increasing demand for energy, such as coal demand of China and India, the battle of exploiting and developing new mines are intensive. Also, there are many competitors in the industry. However, since the exit barriers are high, the competition is limited within the existing companies. Companies in the industry might battle for larger market share but facing little threat of new entries. Thus, the competition in the industry is concluded as medium to high.
Since 2005, the demand for nickel diminished mainly due to the fall in the demand of stainless steel. This caused a great loss of jobs and revenue within the mining sector for Australia. As such BHP billiton, a
Booms, busts, recessions, and growth; all of the preceding terms are characteristics of a typical market economy. There are times when an economy can flourish spectacularly and there are times when it can fail miserably. Consequently, it is the responsibility of a nation’s central bank to manage these fluctuations through conducting effective monetary policy. The following paper will assume the perspective of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and critically analyze the past, present, and future of the Australian economy while considering specific sectors.
BHP Billiton is the world’s top producers of major commodities. China, as BHP Billiton’s largest export market, demand strongly influences the BHP Billiton’s operation (Western Australian Iron Ore Industry Profile 2015). According to the annual report of BHP Billiton (2015), China brought about 36.6% revenue in the amount of total export revenue for BHP Billiton, among the largest product is Iron Ore, which was 66% in 2015. Meanwhile, the forecast of iron ore will continue to increase production. However, Chinese steel consumption may growth slow next few years (shows in figure 1) because the real estate industry decline (Mark 2015). Therefore, oversupply and weaker demand may create the fluctuations in commodity prices which related to commodity risk.
This article reports on the decline in Rio Tinto’s profit as a result of waning Chinese demand for Australian commodities, and the response of the company’s chief executive to the half yearly profit figures.
The evidence that mining investment is falling by more expected or that non-mining investment is failing to rise as is hoped.
The industry is marked by Low revenue volatility and medium regulation level. Although industry globalisation is a critical stage and poses a major threat. However over the last five year the industry has boomed due to increase in consumer expenditure , after the recovery of Australian economy in 2010 the industry has started to positive upturn. The industry is expected to grow at annualized 3.3% to a total of $771.3 million.
There are three major economic factors that have combined contribution to FMG’s growth over the past 5 years, including the strong AUD , the amazing export feature due to the Chinese boom which drives up the commodity price and the interest rate decision by RBA. Australia dollar has appeared strong for the past 5 years and maintained at $6-$6.8 level for AUD/CNY at most time. It promised a high level of foreign income for Australia exporter. In 2009, China demanded almost 60% of the world’s iron ore to produce 47% of world’s steel production. It contributes the most to the price rocket from $31.78 to $180.6 US cents/mts in 5 years time. In addition, Australia borrowing cost remains high over the past few years which may alter the finance decisions of FMG.
BHP Billion, a merging cooperation of BHP and Billion in 2010 (BHP Billiton, 2011), is a world leading company in mining and resource exploiting. According to ASX data, BHP Billion has the largest business scales in the Australian market, AU$166 billion of market capital and AU$71 billion of annual operating revenue in FY13 (Australian Securities Exchange, 2014). Over 128,800 employees and contractors work in 26 countries worldwide to create value for their shareholders (BHPB Annual Report, 2013). The core business has been classified into five units: petroleum, copper, iron ore, coal and aluminum, making 20%, 18%, 17%, 31% and 14% respectively in the revenue of FY13. It can be seen from Graph 1 that although iron ore was not the segment with the largest assets, it still returned with the largest revenue and highest ROA rate in 2013. The following paragraphs will focus on the strategy analysis on the segment of iron ore and how it can conquer possible threats
Results). The company has lowered operational cost, has more highly skilled work force, safer operations, a less more complex organisation and more modern mining operations by mechanised at least 70% of production for its retained portfolio with long-term value creation.
Many seem to believe that AUD/USD and gold is the most important correlation to follow in 2017. While it’s prominence can’t be denied, AUD/USD and silver actually carries more reliability. Australia has huge mining resources and output, thus its economy is tied into the industry on a large scale. Most probably aren’t aware of the fact that mining actually equates for more than 2% of the nation’s employment. On top of that, mining contributes to approximately around 35% of the nation’s exports. What you can take from this is that shifts in the silver market can heavily impact the performance of the AUD/USD.